School Adaption
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Sometimes the first school wasn't the right one. And it didn't necessarily mean he didn't belong in any school.


**A/N:** Written for the Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Calumon's Favour task: write about bullying.

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**School Adaption**

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'Me don't like school,' Keenan decided a couple of weeks after the digital world.

He'd tried it. And he hadn't liked it.

His father sighed. His mother just smiled gently. 'It's okay,' she said. 'School will be hard at the beginning, but you'll get there.'

'You just need to be strong,' his father added. 'School's an adventure, just like the digital world.'

'Digital world no adventure,' Keenan disagreed. 'Marcus and friends are adventure.'

Ruka giggled. Evidentially she agreed. His parents couldn't say they disagreed either, though they worried.

Keenan knew they worried. 'School important,' he said. 'I know.'

'You'll get used to it,' his mother repeated. 'And you'll come to like it.'

**.**

Keenan didn't. The humans at school were so different. They were nothing like Fridgimon or Falcomon or Merukimon or even Gotsumon…and, sometimes, he wished they'd be a mass of the old Gotsumon instead because then at least he'd understand them. Oh, he knew that Gotsumon had changed. That Gotsumon had helped them against their fight against King Drasil. But the old Gotsumon had been…difficult.

The humans at school were even more difficult.

The teachers, adults like his parents and Marcus' mother and the kind Commander and Fridgimon and Merukimon but in manner nothing like them, seemed to expect something he couldn't give. They frowned at his way of speaking. They corrected him. They gave him work that was well beyond what he could do. Things the digital world hadn't taught him.

His parents helped him, of course. But it was a lot of work, because the foundations were missing. History – he knew the history of the digital world, the world he'd grown up in. And though he knew he had to learn the history of the one he would now live in, it was a lot. And in a language that sometimes seemed so...different.

His parents were patient. He tried to be patient too. But the work still kept on piling up. One day, it wouldn't look like he would ever catch up.

And then there were the students. They laughed at his speech. They laughed when he diligently wrote everything the teacher's said. They didn't do that. They still seemed to have an easier time understanding though. 'You shouldn't be here,' they'd tease him. 'You don't belong here.'

He didn't need them to tell him he didn't belong there.

**.**

'It too hard,' Keenan sighed, pushing the books away. 'And it no fun.'

His father pushed them further and replaced them with two cups of coffee and the plate of cookies Michelle had made. 'Have a cookie,' he offered. 'Sugar helps the brain.'

That was a well-established fact in both worlds, and Keenan was quick to grab one for himself. For a moment, the father and son simply munched quietly.

'Keenan,' his father said, after he'd finished his first cookie and Keenan had had three. 'Tell me about your friends.'

'You know Falcomon.' Keenan was confused about the question. 'And Marcus, and Yoshino, and Thomas…'

'And Kristy.' Kevin chuckled. 'Yes, I know them. But have you made any new friends at school? It's been a couple of months now.'

Keenan drooped a little. 'No,' he said softly. 'They worse than Gotsumon. They tease.'

'Do they.' His father frowned. 'Why?'

'Because I not grow up like them. Because I speak funny. Because I don't belong with them.'

The frown deepened. 'There isn't anyone?' he persisted. 'Not even the teachers stop that sort of talk?'

'Teachers think I don't belong there either,' Keenan replied. 'Teachers not care.'

Kevin looked at the pile of work that seemed to grow every day. 'No,' he mused. 'It looks like they don't.'

**.**

School went for a couple more weeks. The first exams came and went and Keenan passed a few. But just a few. Not history. He had a better general understanding now but the questions were too specific. Not writing because his "funny speech" seemed to reflect itself in it. Not math because, again, he'd only known the basics from the digital world and algebra was a good deal beyond those basics. And just barely science and that was possibly through some sort of fluke because the digital world broke several laws of physics by simply existing.

He was fine with sports though, even if the rules were different. Rules weren't that hard to learn, when there were few of them. And an exam was individual. It didn't matter that no-one wanted to be on a team with him. It didn't matter that everyone wanted him to do poorly, and sometimes they went out of their way to make it so. But he had loads of practise with that: with Falcomon before they became as close as brothers, and with Gotsumon. And nothing was as bad as those rocks raining down on them in Merukimon's palace.

Nothing was as bad as that.

**.**

'We were wondering if you'd like to change schools,' his mother said, one afternoon. It was a few days after the report card. When they decided they'd take a break from catching up and do other things. Kristy had been over the day before, talking about her school…and Keenan wished his own school experience was like that as well.

No-one told her she didn't belong at school. No-one could tell her that…and he wasn't even sure someone would have been able to tell her she didn't belong in the Digital World, despite having never being there. Maybe Gotsumon would have: Gotsumon who had wanted Keenan out of the digital world so badly, he'd tried to kill him himself. But Gotsumon, the old Gotsumon, wouldn't have accepted any human in the digital world.

He wondered if the new Gotsumon had warmed up to the constant presence of Marcus there. And Agumon.

But Marcus was there and, sometimes, Keenan wished he was there as well. But that would mean sacrificing his parents again. Sacrificing his little sister. Sacrificing Kristy and Yoshino and Thomas and the others…

It would mean sacrificing school too, but that wouldn't be such a big cost.

School in the digital world was just him and Falcomon and Fridgimon and Merukimon and Merukimon's friends.

'We were thinking about Kristy's school…' His mother's voice trailed off when he didn't respond.

But he perked up at that possibility. Going to school with Kristy meant going to school with a friend. But that wouldn't change the other humans. The students. The teachers. The contents.

'The curriculum is easier as well,' his father added. 'Honestly, we should have started with a public school to begin with, but we were a little…enthusiastic.'

'You did look cute in the uniform,' his mother said fondly. 'And we did dream of sending you where we'd gone ourselves after you were born, but…'

'It okay,' said Keenan, feeling awkward suddenly. His parents made so many allowances for him.

'You need to find the place that suits you,' his father finished. 'And we'll keep looking until we find that place for you.'

**.**

He started at Kristy's school in the new term. It was very different to the private school he'd been attending before. There were people who stared at him funny, of course. People who whispered that he should go back to the private school he'd come from.

But Kristy was there and that made a world of difference. And…there was something different about the environment as well. There were teachers who didn't frown at him but instead helped. There were students who didn't laugh at him but instead pitched in and helped. Like Kristy, and not like Kristy as well. Some of them Kristy didn't even know that well. Keenan supposed that made those students his friends and not Kristy's friends he was "hanging out with".

And the work was a little easier. Not a whole lot easier, but what made it more smooth was that it wasn't just his parents helping him through his work, but his friends and teachers and other students as well. He didn't have to do it himself. And that made the most difference.

But he thought that just having Kristy beside him, glaring at the people he laughed, holding his hand and dragging him along, made it fun like everyone said it was supposed to be.

'But learning is still hard,' he said.

Kristy laughed. 'Well, of course,' she replied. 'Otherwise we wouldn't need to go five and a half days a week, would we?'

Keenan thought about that, then nodded. That made perfect sense.


End file.
